At mug-painting contest, writer gets back to roots

So there I was, back where I started as a journalist, at a party.

I wrote On the Town for years but write about the visual arts now in the Floridian and Weekend sections of the St. Petersburg Times.

My friend, Mary Jane Park, is on vacation and I was at this party anyway, so I offered to write it up. I attended because Edie Spies asked me to judge the mug-painting contest and who says no to Mrs. Spies, who has been president of almost everything but the world and currently leads the Cross of Lorraine, the American Lung Association auxiliary for which the party was a fundraiser.

About 30 of us gathered Wednesday morning at the newly relocated Practically Pikasso, upstairs from Outback Steakhouse on Fourth Street N. Champagne loosened the creative juices. (We judges -- me, Esther Scott of Studio Encanto and Marsha Spindler of International Diamond Center -- stuck to Coke since we didn't require creative juicing.)

At the outset, chairwomen Catherine McGarry and Sharon Clayton Keller announced the mission statement of the party: Eat Drink and Paint Harry. (It may have been "Hairy" since the only guy in the room at that point was 16-month-old Mitchell Nolan who was there with his mom, Nina, by accident and didn't stay.) Keller was careful to note it was not the mission statement of the American Lung Association.

Anyway, after Keller and McGarry laid out the guidelines (none), everyone got down to the business of embellishing blank bisque mugs donated by Tiffany Webb, owner of the shop.

"We all live together," Jeanne Mansfield announced of herself and tablemates Mary McClendon, Betsy Scott, Pat Green and Monica McFann, which was not as startling as it sounded because she meant they all had condominiums at Vinoy Place. They established their aesthetic themes right away except for Green who said, Zenlike, her mug would reflect "what I'm working with, what I'm working for." We thought about that for a moment while someone passed ham and cheese sandwiches.

Two artists chose homages to their dogs: Barbara LaRue, whom everyone was calling Babba-ru by party's end, painted dog bones and the caterpillar squeaky toy favored by CoCo, "my granddog," and Keller immortalized her chihuahua, Speedy Gonzalez.

Other animal themes emerged. Patsy Dunlap, a tireless community volunteer, painted pink pigs -- an allusion to her announcement during the party that she is retiring from charity committees and would help with another one only "when pigs fly." (Sure.)

Olga Rainey painted a cardinal, Sharyn Wittner a dove, but her theme was more global than natural -- she included an American flag and Star of David "for world peace." Mary Wyatt Allen, who usually dresses in red, white and blue, painted -- you guessed it -- an American flag on hers, too. Patriotism and interviewing potential directors for the St. Petersburg Museum of History -- she's a guiding volunteer light at the museum and its interim director until the board selects a permanent one -- are two of her major preoccupations these days.

Priscilla Hobby, one of the most hospitable people I know, painted pineapples, symbols of hospitality. She used as inspiration the Williamsburg holiday catalog, but we judges did not consider that in any way an infraction of the guidelines.

Other artists in the crowd were Diane Winning, who arrived late because she bowls every Wednesday morning; Lenne Nicklaus-Ball, who painted both a mug and a tray; Joann Barger; Nancy H. Thomas, who chose an "under the sea" theme with fish and an octopus whose expression recalled Edvard Munch's The Scream (I have to make these art references now); Ann Foster; Kathy Zimmerman; and Celma Mastry, who wore a floral jacket, gorgeous flower brooch of enamel and aquamarines, and painted her mug to match. She also reported that Bay Bash Ball, for Bayfront Medical Center, which she recently co-chaired, had netted about $75,000, excellent in these tough times.

Picking winners was tough. But we did. And they were: Most Creative, Sharyn Wittner; Cutest, Patsy Dunlap; Funniest, Sally Poynter, whose fantasy self-portrait with purple hair and blond highlights looked so fetching you may see this new look at the next party; and Barbara Zaccaria, who emulated a real Picasso in creating a cubist portrait on her mug. Zaccaria also won the drawing for the three-quarter-carat diamond heart pendant donated by the International Diamond Center, but there was absolutely no connection between the two victories.

Well, On-the-Towners, coming back for a visit was fun. Art doesn't talk back the way you do. Still, it speaks. To me anyway.

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